Verizon FiOS with only a Apple Airport Extreme
19 Sep 2007I’ve had Verizon’s FiOS service for about a year now, and by and large I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. One thing that has bothered me, though, is the big ActionTec router that they supply. It’s a nice router and all and you do need it if you also have Verizon’s digital cable service. But I have just the internet service and I already have a gaggle of Apple Airport Extreme and Airport Express base stations around the house, so this Actiontec router was just a superfluous thingy and I felt that my Airport Extreme base station could be put to better use in its place. Now, the Actiontec router is what the VZ tech installs. It takes the 100Mb ethernet connection coming into the house from the ONT outside. According to VZ support, only it can be used to terminate the FiOS internet, but I doubted this. I wanted this thing out of the picture and was successful at doing so.What you need to do is the following:
- Log in to the Actiontec’s web interface (typically by going to http://192.168.1.1/)
- Select Network, click on “Ethernet (Broadband)” and its edit icon. Down the page, you’ll see a button labled “Release”. It’s important to release the IP address VZ’s network has given the Actiontec, or it’ll refuse to allot one to your Airport Extreme once you bring that up in its place.
- Immediatly turn off the Actiontec. Remove the “WAN” ethernet cable from it, and plug it into the “WAN” port of your Airport base station. Turn the Airport on.
- The Airport base station should boot up and request an IP from VZ’s DHCP server. Speaking of which, the “Internet Connection” setting in the Airport should be “DHCP” and not “PPPoE”. VZ no longer uses PPPoE on its FiOS lines.
- Configure your Aiport wireless network as you see fit and you’re done. No more Actiontec.
Step 2 is muy importante. If you don’t do that, your Airport base station will be sitting there with a blinking amber light because the VZ network is refusing to give it an IP, simply because it still thinks that your (no longer operating) Actiontec has it.
I ran across your article, after researching my difficulties getting fios to connect with my airport extreme. After clicking that pesky “release” button, my network was working like a charm. THANKS!
Currently, I have a coax cable running into the house from the ONT. But I don’t and will not use Verizon tv any time in the near future. I just wanted FIOS for internet/phone. I figured I could just run an ethernet cable from the ONT like you seem to have. But I assume there is a switch of some sort so that the signal transfers over the cat5 vs coax cable. Do you know if this is true? I desperately want to get rid of this actiontec router.
Thanks.
The ActionTec router supplied by Verizon died after 14 months (Verizon says the warrantee expired at 12 months!). So there is no way I can release my IP address through the modem. Any work around for this? Can I ask Verizon Fios to release my IP address?
@Mark:
Sorry for the late reply, but you need to release it from the ActionTec. However, if you wait long enough (24-48 hours) the IP might be automatically released by VZ’s DHCP servers because your (dead) ActionTec wasn’t around to renew its lease on that particular IP. Your Airport Extreme should then be able to snag a new one.
re “VZ no longer uses PPPoE on its FiOS lines.” … this may be by market. I wasn’t able to get a new Airport Extreme to replace a VZN-supplied D-Link DI-624 using DHCP, but when I switched it over to PPoE it worked immediately. Fortunately I had written down and kept the login that the FIOS installer set up way back when (it was “1″ and “1″!).
This is a really stupid question but where can I find my user name and password for the Actiontec’s web interface? I just have FiOS installed two days ago and trying to figure out how to connect it to Airport Extreme..
Just wanted to say thanks for writing these clear and short instructions on how to do this. My problem has been solved! (I just wish this was the first page I came to while I was searching. :))
hi,
just got fios and had verizon release my ip so i could ethernet straight into the extreme…. all the lights are green. it all works but I cannot connect to the internet… my ip is 10. addressing… what can i do - apple and verizon where at a loss to help me…
should i change the dns? should it be dchp? should i select share ip address or bridge? i just cannot get this to work at all and it is driving me nutz!
JT